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'Big split' at Essendon

There is an increasingly bitter row between the Essendon coach James Hird and AFL chief Andrew Demetriou over a phone conversation that took place the night before the club made public its concerns over potential doping.

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SALLY SARA: Embattled AFL club Essendon is in the headlines again, and not for its showdown against Hawthorn tonight.

There is an increasingly bitter row between the club's coach James Hird and AFL chief Andrew Demetriou over a phone conversation that took place the night before the club made public its concerns over potential doping.

At its heart, the dispute centres on whether Essendon was tipped off by the AFL chief that it was under investigation - something the Andrew Demetriou denies.

Madeleine Morris reports from Melbourne.

MADELEINE MORRIS: "The Big Split" is the headline in Melbourne's Herald Sun this morning and it's hard to imagine a bigger crisis in Essendon's 140 year history.

On one side is coach James Hird; on the other the club's chairman David Evans and the head of the AFL Andrew Demetriou.

It has emerged James Hird told the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) about a phone call that Mr Demetriou made to Mr Evans late on February 4th, the day before Essendon called a media conference saying it was self-reporting potential doping.

The previous week Mr Demetriou had been briefed by the Australian Crime Commission that there was a major investigation into potential doping in the AFL.

It's been reported that a still unnamed witness has told ASADA investigators that during that phone call Evans and Demetriou discussed the potential use of performance enhancing drugs at Essendon.

But speaking to Gerard Whateley on ABC local radio in Melbourne this morning, Mr Demetriou vehemently denied he had tipped off the club that they were being investigated.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: He said that he, I'm hearing that we're going to be the target, you know, we are a club that is going to be the target of ASADA, an investigation of supplements. I said I don't know, I can't tell you anything David. I don't know if you are, the club, I don't know. And that was that.

I mean the simple thing in this Gerard, which I've tried to explain and I think I've explained pretty well, is that it was impossible to tip David Evans off because I was not in, I didn't have the knowledge of who the club was.

MADELEINE MORRIS: That's in stark contrast to the comments made by James Hird at club training yesterday.

JAMES HIRD: Oh guys, I think, as I've said, I was at the meeting, a phone call was made, truth's been told to ASADA about what was said in that conversation and what we were told about the conversation, so we'll leave it at that.

MADELEINE MORRIS: But this morning Andrew Demetriou stressed that James Hird was not on that phone call.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: The phone call between David and I was a phone call that he and I had had. He and I were the people that were speaking. There was no other person to the best of my knowledge that was on that phone call. So I'm very clear what happened that night.

If there is a different version, that's okay too. I mean people can interpret things the way they interpret them but I know what was said and I know David knows what was said.

MADELEINE MORRIS: For his part, David Evans has remained tight-lipped, simply telling reporters after an Essendon board meeting last night that his job wasn't under threat.

James Hird also isn't going anywhere.

The joint AFL/ASADA investigation into doping is expected to come out next month. Regardless of what it finds about substance abuse, the damage to a once proud club and its team relations has already been done.